the lines keep getting thinner
by usoverlooked
Summary: Jade's pregnant. Somehow, Kaldur's the one helping her through it.
1. Chapter 1

Jade realized that she couldn't keep going on the way she had been in the middle of January. It was cold and the air smelled strongly of leftover Christmas trees. The smell permeated her senses and riled her stomach. As she hunched over and heaved into her weapons bag, Jade was struck with what loomed ahead.

"Hiya, sis." Jade smiled down at her sister, who was curled up against her speedster. Artemis woke quickly, hair flying around her as she sat up. There was a half second pause before Artemis dove for her older sister, but it was enough. Jade slipped out of the way easily.

"Calm down, Arty," the older girl chose the nickname carefully, one that had always bothered her younger sister. But Artemis shoved Jade into a chest of drawers, diving for something on the nearby floor.

"Look, I quit okay? I'm just a college kid, so leave me alone!" Artemis punctuated nearly every other word with an arrow, which Jade artfully dodged. She attempted to get near enough to Artemis to stop the other girl from throwing another arrow, but a pair of arms grasped her, halting her in place. Artemis froze, an arrow notched and pointed at Jade's chest.

"Why are you here?" Her words seemed to burn at her throat, as if the hate in them bubbled from her heart and into her speech. Jade, truthfully, was wounded by this.

"I'm in an awful mess and I don't mean maybe," Jade replied cleverly. Artemis's expression remained stony.

"Why should we care?" her boyfriend asked, his arms still encircling Jade. He was lean and smelled of barbecue. Jade didn't see the appeal.

"There's no 'we' about it, freckles. I need my sister, not her-"

"What do you need? Dad finally cut you loose and you don't know what to do without a puppeteer?"

"Ouch, Art, especially considering who was the real rule follower back in the day." Artemis's eyes narrowed at the words and Jade back pedaled. "I'm... This isn't what I came here for."

Artemis lowered the bow slightly at her sister's halting speech.

"I'm pregnant." The admission, so simple and honest, froze Artemis in place. The boyfriend's arms fall away, but neither sister gave this much notice. Artemis dropped the bow entirely after a moment.

"Shit," the younger sister replied.

Jade never liked to play with dolls or stuffed animals. She preferred to watch; watch the neighbors from their peephole as they walked down the faded hallway, watch the cars from their fire escape. Something in this memory struck Artemis now.

"Who's the... It's not Ro-Red Arrow?" The words stumbled out. Artemis was angry at this possibility, that Roy would do this to, or with, her sister and neither know more than the other's costume.

"Roy. I know his name, Artemis," Jade's voice sounded strained and she stared straight ahead. "But yes, it's his."

"How did he take it?" Artemis asked, looking up at Wally for assistance. Oblivious to her gaze, Wally glared steadily at her sister.

"She hasn't told him," Wally observed angrily and Jade's eyes moved from the wall to him. "Have you?"

"I can't track him down." Jade stared at him, a bloodthirsty look in her eyes. "My situation would look weak to my usual contacts. So I had to go with the second string. No offense, sis."

"You want us to track down your baby daddy?"

"This is the closest to normal family drama either of us have ever been in," Jade quipped. "Crazy isn't it?"

Jade was good at doctoring things. Artemis remembered being a kid and her sister sewing up a wound, still young herself. At the time, it had seemed fun, like a game. She'd gotten to hand Jade rubbing alcohol and pads, like a little nurse. Afterwards, Jade had kissed her forehead and promised to read her Harry Potter as a reward. Except, their father had walked in and Jade had provoked him and somehow Artemis never got to hear about the golden trio from her sister.

"Are you going to keep it?" Artemis asked, thinking of how her sister was so self-sufficient. The sisters were alone now, Wally had disappeared to try to find Roy after some convincing from Artemis.

"If it was you, you would, wouldn't you? That silly boy would marry you and you'd have the baby and raise it right. Hell, the kid would probably even have a curfew." Jade stirred a pot of noodles as she spoke. As soon as Wally had left, she'd declared she was hungry, assumedly to slow Artemis's attempts at conversation.

"Jade, that's not..." Artemis felt as though she was standing on a ledge. Say the wrong thing and Jade would shove her over the side. "You could do that too, if you wanted. You could do anything if you decided you wanted to. You're the top of the tops."

It was an old thing, some line from a movie that the pair had watched on their shitty television while their parents worked. Somehow it had become a comment that the girls would make to each other when times got tough. It was a joke, yet somehow it had become serious at the same time. When Artemis had a tough day at school, some young asshole plucking at her pigtails, Jade would smack her on the back of the head, tell her to dry those damn tears and remind her she was the top of the tops. Jade would come home too late one night, refusing to explain to Artemis why there was a bruise on her neck and she smelled of cigarettes, but Artemis would still remind her that she was the top of tops.

Jade ducked her head at the comment now and Artemis bit her lip, deciding whether to continue or let her sister think.

"If Roy wants to try and help me, I'd raise it. Wouldn't let the kid get away with shit either," Jade said this with a note of defiance in her voice. Artemis's heart warmed at that because she recognized the tone. It was the sound of Jade deciding something.

"Guess you'll have to think of a name then," Artemis said at length.  
"Is that a hint I should name it after you?" Jade replied as she strained the now cooked pasta. Artemis shrugged, amusing Jade. "So what if it's a boy?"

"You could name it after Wally." Artemis said simply. Jade snorted.

"Hell could freeze over." Plucking a noodle from the strainer, Jade leaned against the counter.

"C'mon, you know it'd bug Roy to have the kid named after someone other than Kaldur." At Jade's confused look, Artemis explained. "Y'know, Aqualad... His name's Kal? He's the one with water and he's like Roy's best friend."

"Kal's a solid name," Jade responded, almost dreamily, as she continued to snack on pasta straight from the strainer.

"So if Roy doesn't... If he is stupid enough to not want to go with you on this, could you raise it? I mean, like with money?" Artemis stumbled over the words, but knew they must be asked. Jade shrugged in response.

"As much as if he was helping, at least with money. I'm entitled to half his shit, which is not much."

"Jade, you realize having a baby doesn't mean you get half his stuff, that's not how child support works."

"That's how marriage works, Arty." Jade countered. Off Artemis's shocked look, she continued. "It's true, he got me drunk enough to get hitched. We even got matching tattoos, which I'd show you but the placement isn't exactly family friendly."

Artemis wrinkled her nose and let out a noise of disgust. Before Jade could further comment, the door burst open. Wally stood with Kaldur, looks of concern etched across their features.

"There may be a problem," Wally said. Jade's posture had changed at the intrusion and her eyes narrowed at Kaldur, recognition washing over her. She did not know the boy himself, but she knew of him and his family.

"I'd say so. What's fish sticks doing here?" Jade moved away from the pair, blocking herself with Artemis's frame. If the boy's father was any indication, he was not to be trusted. She recognized that logically, her sister and herself were signs that this was not entirely true. But the boy's appearance still threw her for a loop, setting her off balance.

"I regret to inform you that Roy is not... He is not in any condition to be in the care of a child." Kaldur's expression was sad, as though he really was regretful.

"Drugs again?" Jade asked point-blank. Artemis's eyes bugged at the suggestion and Wally's jaw tensed, but the other boy remained calm. He nodded, almost bleakly. Jade swallowed, angry at herself for hoping and angry at Roy for giving up.

"However, I may have found a compromise." Kaldur held out his hand for Jade to shake and she stared at it dubiously.

"Off the suggestion, then offer the hand, gils."

"I will help you with your pregnancy, if you will help my best friend regain control of his life." Kaldur put it so simply, as if they were trading cookies at lunch in school. Jade liked that about him already.

"Deal."

* * *

Alright thanks to the ever lovely Dicey (thecivilunrest) for beta'ing and helping me figure out where I want to go with this in the next chapter (s). There will be at least one more part, maybe two.


	2. Chapter 2

"It's roomy." Jade commented, the note of sarcasm in her voice not lost on the Atlantian. The pregnant woman turned to face him and found him stoically looking at her. "It's a joke, even a bad ol' cat like myself make them from time to time."  
"I am aware, I simply was trying to understand why you thought it wise to insult the person giving you shelter in a time of hardship." Kaldur replied, meeting her gaze as he finished speaking. In response, Jade chuckled and nodded, ascending the point. Kaldur set her bag-which he had insisted on carrying-down, ignoring the odd clink of metal objects in it as he did.  
"S'nice couch." Jade sat on the furniture, ran a hand over the suede and smiled. "Roy's been holding out on me, you good guys must be paid better than I realized."  
"Actually this isn't from the League nor my team," Kaldur said, without explaining further. He motioned to another room. "You may take the guest room. The kitchen is this direction-" he pointed down the hall nearest the front door "-and there is a washroom, the door is the one nearest to the guest room."  
Kaldur headed down the hall and placed her bag in the room that would become hers. Jade remained where she sat, trying to collect her thoughts.  
"Hey, Nemo?" She called down the hall. There was no response, but she assumed that he heard. "I owe you."  
"You are going to save my best friend in return for this. Besides, perhaps I am doing this for your-and his- child." Kaldur walked around the corner, standing at attention before the woman. She had pulled her knees up onto the couch and he denoted the bags under her eyes. Simultaneously, Jade looked both older and younger with these changes.  
"Well until I get Roy back, I owe you." She didn't say it, would probably never say it, Kaldur knew. But he heard the unspoken thank you in her words nonetheless.

"Do you have yogurt?" Jade's voice floated to Kaldur, who had seated himself with a good book in the living area. He sighed and set the book beside him on the couch.  
"You are in the kitchen, I would assume you are able to answer that question more aptly than I," Kaldur called back. A few moments passed before Jade slunk into the hallway. She held a spoon in her mouth and a tub of something in her hand.  
"The food here? Terrible." Jade leaned against the wall. "I'm going to leave a list of stuff, you get it and I'll cook it."  
"There is no need for you to do that." Kaldur replied, the hairs on the back of his neck raised.  
Jade snorted. "Actually there is, Ariel. I'm not doing this out of the goodness of my heart. I can't eat another pack of ramen noodles. Just accept the food, alright?"  
The next morning, Kaldur discovered a list of various ingredients and foods tacked to his door with a dagger. He kept the dagger, but pulled a coat on and headed to the grocery store, list in hand.

"You ever been in love, Kal?" Jade asked this as innocently as she did anything. He turned to look at the woman, seated beside him in a pair of sweats and an old t-shirt of indiscernible origin. Her hair was piled atop her head so casually and Kaldur thought suddenly how young she was.  
"I wouldn't think you'd believe in that." He responded carefully as he ever did. While he trusted her enough to sleep in the same apartment, he kept himself distant from her. Despite her appearance, he knew that she was doing the same with him.  
"Doesn't mean you don't. Look at my sister, she's all moony-eyed and singing Lion King theme songs with the speed boy. People can believe in stupid shit given the right circumstances," Jade stared steadily ahead. This was how discussions with them usually went, her asking asinine or absurd questions and then avoiding his questioning gaze.  
"I was. Twice actually, with the same girl," Kaldur admitted and Jade's eyebrows raised. She turned to him, questioning without words. He merely shook his head in response.

"You looked to your left," Jade pointed out from the couch. She had cookbooks spread across her lap and a grocery list on her knee. Kaldur trained aside her, using his abilities to send a weight around the room. He took care to keep it clear of the assassin situated on the couch, as she had previously threatened to 'chuck the weight down his throat' if it came near her or her stomach, which was beginning to show. At Jade's injunction, he looked up. She had gone back to the cookbooks.  
"What do you mean?" Kaldur asked, letting the weight hover near him. Jade finished reading a recipe before answering.  
"When you're going to throw it left, you look left. You don't do it any other direction, which is good, but it's still sloppy." As usual, Kaldur found himself surprised by her calm tone. She sounded more therapist than assassin. She chewed absently on the pen lid, her attention once more on the Atlantian. A moment passed before she grinned.  
"I'm good, aren't I?" she teased and in spite of himself Kaldur's mouth quirked up in a smile.

"Her name was Tula," Kaldur said as softly as he could. Next to him, Jade held a sonogram in her hands, tapping it against her knee. At his comment, she stopped though she continued to stare at the sonogram.  
"She had red hair and a good heart. I think sometimes that she could have been Ariel from your Little Mermaid film. She got into mischief, yet always managed to charm her way out of it," Kaldur rubbed a hand against the back of his neck, anxious to open such a memory to her.  
"How'd you love her twice?" Jade merely asked. The sonogram, which had caused her silent distress, was placed carefully on the end table as she came to sit beside him. Her hands rested comfortably on her stomach and Kaldur resisted the urge to mention how well she had taken to pregnancy. The last time he had attempted such a comment a letter opener had lodged itself near his ear.  
"The first time I loved her, I chose being a part of the team and she chose our dear friend." Jade rolled her eyes at his comment, as if duty was an annoying concept. Kaldur continued. "The second time was perhaps more true. She joined the team and I think she understood it, understood me, better. But a mission went badly and..."  
"Damn gingers," Jade commented. "They'll ruin your whole damn life."

"Kal," her voice broke. Perhaps in response, her expression hardened. "You don't have to do this."  
"I want to," his voice is resolute. But for a second, Kaldur quivered. "I'm sorry, Jade. I know-"  
"Fuck your sorry." Jade straightened up, belly bulging and eyes blazing angrily. Kaldur moved back as if she had slapped him. "You're throwing away a damn good life for a shitty father. Look, I've been down roads and that's the wrong move, fish stick."  
She swallowed and shouldered her bag. A moment passed, one waiting for the other to say something or do something, before Jade marched to the door. It was as if his silence had decided things for her.  
"Jade," Kaldur spoke softly. Her back stiffened at the call, the only indication she had heard. Then she turned her head, eyes meeting his. "Try to save him."  
The only response was a low chuckle, which Kaldur understood. There was an irony of it, the flip of their lives like some sick coin. She leaned against the doorjamb for a moment, turning fully and giving him that grin that earned her that alter ego in the first place.  
"Goodbye, Baby Manta," Jade said bitterly. There was a part of Kaldur that longed to protest the nickname, while he had accepted so many others. Instead he sighed and watched the doors swing shut.


End file.
